5D-AeroSafe

5D-AeroSafe is a 36-month project that will develop a set of drone-based services to increase the safety and security of airport and waterway, while reducing operational costs through the offering of five services, namely: CNS/GNSS equipment inspection and calibration, security checks in the airport perimeter and approaches, runways and taxiways inspections, aircraft inspections, waterways operation and inspections. The challenge is to integrate the flight of drones in restricted areas where they will co-exist with numerous commercial flights without increasing risks. The integration UTM/ATM is thus studied in detail in the project to propose these efficient solutions. The services are based on the use of several drones (fixed wings for large area monitoring, and VTOLs for detailed inspections and calibrations) integrated in a generic ground station equipped with innovative ITC capabilities, connected to the airport legacy systems. The 5D-AeroSafe modules will be connected, via SWIM, to airport maintenance systems for infrastructure inspection and calibration aspects, operations systems for the aircraft inspections, and finally with the local ATM for the ATM/UTM integration aspects. The project will be implemented under the control of relevant end-users’ stakeholders (airport and water airport operators), and authorities (Civil Aviation Authorities). The tests and validation of the system will be performed through three operational test pilots at different stages of the project as the implementation will be incremental, and will take place in real locations and in as much as possible real conditions. As the technological and operational innovations are multiple, the project will target a final TRL of 6-7. The consortium and the advisory board encompass a large set of end-users and authorities which is a guaranty of the operationality of the project outcomes, and the industry and research partners have been involved for a long time in drone services development.